Specialty Food Magazine

WINTER 2015

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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Page 28 of 139

Sara Holby, Ajiri Tea
T
he name of this company means "to employ" in Swahili, which
Ajiri does by hiring Kenyan women to create the handmade
labels on its tea and coffee packaging. But that's just the beginning.
Inspiration
Sara Holby, 27, studied African history at Bowdoin College in
Maine and spent a semester of her junior year in Kenya. It was a
family tradition: her mother, two aunts, and two uncles had also
studied in Kenya. Her stay culminated in a volunteer project work-
ing with HIV/AIDS patients in the Kisii District of western Kenya.
She returned the following year working for the same organization,
giving out food and medicine.
The U.S. financial crisis of 2008 meant donations to the
organization dried up. Holby had to turn away people who were in
desperate need, so the inspiration for Ajiri Tea was to help create a
sustainable source of funds.
"I decided to create employment in the area instead of giving
handouts," she says. She talked to her mother, Ann, and her sister,
Kate, about forming a company that would draw on the artistic tal-
ents of the women of Kisii who were capable of creating beautiful,
handmade labels for packaging. "Selling tea was the means to an
end," Holby says. "We came at it backwards." By spring 2009 the
business had a co-op of farmers lined up to hand-pick the tea, and
local women gathered to make the labels. The products started sell-
ing in Pennsylvania and New Jersey–area stores that fall.
"The tea itself is really good tea and the story is pretty great,"
Holby says of customers' instant positive response. Ajiri Tea is now
carried in 450 stores across the country.
Impact
The women of Kisii, some of them widows, some with HIV, can
make labels for Ajiri from home so they're still able to care for their
families. The company employs 63 local women, who individually
hand-make each label, featuring motifs of wild animals and everyday
village life.
Not only have many of the women opened bank accounts for
the first time in their lives, they've formed so-called 'merry-go-
round' savings groups. Each woman contributes $15 to a fund that
goes to one woman every so often in a lump sum. New roofs, live-
stock, and school fees have been paid for this way.
Holby also established the Ajiri Foundation, which pays school
fees for children from the tea farming community who have lost at
least one parent. The program currently sponsors 14 primary school
students and 15 high-schoolers.
The Future
Two students recently graduated from high school, thanks to the
Ajiri Foundation. They each received a laptop and currently are
attending college.
Holby wants to instill similar educational aspirations among
her employees. "One of my dreams is to talk to the women about
literacy and small business ideas," she says. "And I'm hoping to teach
some of them to use a computer."
Not only have many of
the Kenyan women employed
by Ajiri Tea opened bank
accounts for the frst time in
their lives, they've formed
so-called 'merry-go-round'
savings groups that have
helped fund families' new roofs,
livestock, and school fees.
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